James Levine Metropolitan Opera When did he first perform at the Metropolitan Opera? Levine made his Metropolitan Opera (the "Met") debut at age 28 on June 5, 1971, What did he perform? conductor Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? allegations that Levine had sexually abused four young men, the Met suspended its relationship with him Were charges ever brought to these allegations? I don't know. What was his role at the Metropolitan Opera? he was named principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in February 1972. He became the Met's principal conductor in 1973, and its Music Director in 1975. What were some of his other performances? Levine led the Metropolitan Opera on many domestic and international tours. Where did they tour? I don't know.
Were his performances successful?
Were James Levine's performances successful?
Levine made his Metropolitan Opera (the "Met") debut at age 28 on June 5, 1971, leading a June Festival performance of Tosca. Following further appearances with the company, he was named principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in February 1972. He became the Met's principal conductor in 1973, and its Music Director in 1975. In 1983, he served as conductor and musical director for the Franco Zeffirelli screen adaptation of La Traviata, which featured the Met orchestra and chorus members. He became the company's first artistic director in 1986, and relinquished the title in 2004. In 2005, Levine's combined salary from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Met made him the highest-paid conductor in the country, at $3.5 million.  During Levine's tenure, the Metropolitan Opera orchestra expanded its activities into the realms of recording, and separate concert series for the orchestra and chamber ensembles from The Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Levine led the Metropolitan Opera on many domestic and international tours. For the 25th anniversary of his Met debut, Levine conducted the world premiere of John Harbison's The Great Gatsby, commissioned especially to mark the occasion. On his appointment as general manager of the Met, Peter Gelb emphasized that Levine was welcome to remain as long as he wanted to direct music there. Levine was paid $2.1 million by the Met in 2010.  Following a series of injuries that began with a fall (see below), Levine's subsequent health problems led to his withdrawal from many Metropolitan Opera conducting engagements. Following a May 2011 performance of Die Walkure, Levine formally withdrew from all conducting engagements at the Met. After two years of physical therapy, Levine returned to conducting with a May 2013 concert with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. On September 25, 2013, Levine conducted his first Met performance since May 2011, in a revival production of Cosi fan tutte. Levine was scheduled to conduct three productions at the opera house and three concerts at Carnegie Hall in the 2013-14 season. On April 14, 2016, Met management announced that Levine would step down from his position as Music Director at the end of the 2015-16 season. Levine was paid $1.8 million by the Met for the 2015/16 season. He assumed the new title of Music Director Emeritus, which he held until December 2017, when in the wake of allegations that Levine had sexually abused four young men, the Met suspended its relationship with him and cancelled all his future scheduled performances with the company. CANNOTANSWER
Levine's combined salary from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Met made him the highest-paid conductor in the country, at $3.5 million.
James Lawrence Levine (; June 23, 1943 – March 9, 2021) was an American conductor and pianist. He was music director of the Metropolitan Opera (the "Met") from 1976 to 2016. He was formally terminated from all his positions and affiliations with the Met on March 12, 2018, over sexual misconduct allegations, which he denied.

Levine held leadership positions with the Ravinia Festival, the Munich Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1980 he started the Lindemann Young Artists Development Program, and trained singers, conductors, and musicians for professional careers.

After taking an almost two-year health-related hiatus from conducting from 2011 to 2013, during which time he held artistic and administrative planning sessions at the Met, and led training of the Lindemann Young Artists, Levine retired as the Met's full-time Music Director following the 2015–16 season to become Music Director Emeritus.

Early years and personal life
Levine was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a Jewish, musical family. His maternal grandfather was a composer and a cantor in a synagogue; his father, Lawrence, was a violinist who led dance bands under the name "Larry Lee" before entering his father's clothing business; and his mother, Helen Goldstein Levine, was briefly an actress on Broadway, performing as "Helen Golden". He had a brother, Tom, who was two years younger, who followed him to New York City from Cincinnati in 1974, and with whom he was very close. He employed Tom as his business assistant, looking after his affairs, arranging his rehearsal schedules, fielding queries, scouting out places to live, meeting with accountants, and accompanying Levine on trips to Europe. Tom was also a painter. He also had a younger sister, Janet, who is a marriage counselor.

He began to play the piano as a small child. On February 21, 1954, at age 10, Levine made his concert debut as soloist playing Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 2 at a youth concert of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in Ohio.

Levine subsequently studied music with Walter Levin, first violinist in the LaSalle Quartet. In 1956 he took piano lessons with Rudolf Serkin at the Marlboro Music School in Vermont. The next year he began to study piano with Rosina Lhévinne at the Aspen Music School. He graduated from Walnut Hills High School, a magnet school in Cincinnati. He entered the Juilliard School of Music in New York City in 1961, and took courses in conducting with Jean Morel. He graduated from Juilliard in 1964, and joined the American Conductors project connected with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Levine lived in The San Remo on Central Park West in New York City.

Career

Early career
From 1964 to 1965, Levine served as an apprentice to George Szell with the Cleveland Orchestra. He then served as the Orchestra's assistant conductor until 1970. That year, he also made debuts as guest conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra at its summer home at Robin Hood Dell, the Welsh National Opera, and the San Francisco Opera. From 1965 to 1972 he concurrently taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In the summers, he worked at the Meadow Brook School of Music in Michigan and at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During that time, the charismatic Levine developed a devoted following of young musicians and music lovers.

In June 1971, Levine was called in at the last moment to substitute for István Kertész, to lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Mahler's Second Symphony for the Ravinia Festival's opening concert of their 36th season. This concert began a long association with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. From 1973 to 1993 he was music director of the Ravinia Festival, succeeding the late Kertész. He made numerous recordings with the orchestra, including the symphonies and German Requiem of Johannes Brahms, and major works of Gershwin, Holst, Berg, Beethoven, Mozart, and others. In 1990, at the request of Roy E. Disney, he arranged the music and conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the soundtrack of Fantasia 2000, released by Walt Disney Pictures. From 1974 to 1978, Levine also served as music director of the Cincinnati May Festival.

Metropolitan Opera

Levine made his Metropolitan Opera debut a few weeks before he turned 28, on June 5, 1971, leading a June Festival performance of Puccini's Tosca. After further appearances with the company, he was named its principal conductor in February 1972. He became its music director in 1975. In 1983, he served as conductor and musical director for the Franco Zeffirelli screen adaptation of Verdi's La Traviata, which featured the Met orchestra and chorus members. He became the company's first artistic director in 1986, and relinquished the title in 2004. In 2005, Levine's combined salary from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Met made him the highest-paid conductor in the country, at $3.5 million.

During Levine's tenure, the Metropolitan Opera orchestra expanded its activities into recording and concert series for the orchestra and chamber ensembles from the orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Levine led the Metropolitan Opera on many domestic and international tours. For the 25th anniversary of his Met debut, Levine conducted the world premiere of John Harbison's The Great Gatsby, commissioned for the occasion. On his appointment as general manager of the Met, Peter Gelb emphasized that Levine was welcome to remain as long as he wanted to direct music there. Levine was paid $2.1 million by the Met in 2010.

Following a series of injuries that began with a fall, Levine's health problems led to his withdrawal from many Metropolitan Opera engagements. After a May 2011 performance of Wagner's Die Walküre, Levine formally withdrew from all engagements at the Met. After two years of physical therapy, he returned to conducting with a May 2013 concert with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. On September 25, 2013, Levine conducted his first Met performance since May 2011, in a revival production of Mozart's Così fan tutte. He was scheduled to conduct three productions at the opera house and three at Carnegie Hall in the 2013–14 season. On April 14, 2016, Met management announced that Levine would step down from his position as music director at the end of the 2015–16 season. Levine was paid $1.8 million by the Met for the 2015–16 season. He assumed the new title of Music Director Emeritus, which he held until December 2017, when in the wake of allegations that Levine had sexually abused four young men, the Met suspended its relationship with him and canceled all his scheduled performances with the company.

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Levine first conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in April 1972. In October 2001, he was named its music director effective with the 2004–05 season, with an initial contract of five years, becoming the first American-born conductor to head the BSO.

One unique condition that Levine negotiated was increased flexibility of the time allotted for rehearsal, allowing the orchestra additional time to prepare more challenging works. After the start of his tenure, the orchestra also established an "Artistic Initiative Fund" of about $40 million to fund the more expensive of his projects.

One criticism of Levine during his BSO tenure is that he did not attend many orchestra auditions. A 2005 article reported that he had attended two out of 16 auditions during his tenure up to that time. Levine responded that he has the ability to provide input on musician tenure decisions after the initial probationary period, and that it is difficult to know how well a given player will fit the given position until that person has had a chance to work with the orchestra: "My message is the audition isn't everything."

Another 2005 report stated that during Levine's first season as music director, the greater workload from the demands of playing more unfamiliar and contemporary music had increased physical stress on some of the BSO musicians. Levine and the players met to discuss this, and he agreed to program changes to lessen these demands. He received general critical praise for revitalizing the orchestra's quality and repertoire since the beginning of his tenure.

Levine experienced ongoing health problems, starting with an onstage fall in 2006 that resulted in a torn rotator cuff and started discussion of how long Levine's tenure with the BSO would last. In April 2010, in the wake of his continuing health problems, it emerged that Levine had not officially signed a contract extension, so that he was the BSO's music director without a signed contract. On March 2, 2011, the BSO announced Levine's resignation as music director effective September 2011, after the Orchestra's Tanglewood season.

Working on a commission from Levine and the BSO, the composer John Harbison dedicated his Symphony No. 6 "in friendship and gratitude" to him, whose premature departure from the orchestra prevented him from conducting the premiere.

After allegations of his abusing a number of young men came out in December 2017 the BSO said Levine "will never be employed or contracted by the BSO at any time in the future".

Conducting in Europe
Levine's BSO contract limited his guest appearances with American orchestras, but he still conducted regularly in Europe, with the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, and at the Bayreuth Festival. Levine was a regular guest with the Philharmonia of London and the Staatskapelle Dresden. Beginning in 1975 he conducted regularly at the Salzburg Festival and the annual July Verbier Festival. From 1999 to 2004, he was chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, and was credited with improving the quality of instrumental ensemble during his tenure.

Work with students 
Levine initiated the Lindemann Young Artists Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera in 1980, a professional training program for graduated singers with, today, many famous alumni.

Levine was conductor of the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra, the student resident orchestra at the annual summer music festival in Verbier, Switzerland, from 1999 through 2006. It was Levine's first long-term commitment to a student orchestra since becoming music director at the Met.

After becoming music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Levine also served as music director of the Tanglewood Music Center, the BSO's acclaimed summer academy at Tanglewood for student instrumentalists, singers, composers, and conductors. There he conducted the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, directed fully staged opera performances with student singers, and gave master classes for singers and conductors.

Levine said in an interview:

At my age, you are naturally inclined towards teaching. You want to teach what you have learned to the next generation so that they don't have to spend time reinventing the wheel. I was lucky that I met the right mentors and teachers at the right moment. I love working with young musicians and singers, and those at the Tanglewood Music Center are unequivocally some of the finest and most talented in the world.

He continued to work with young students even when his health issues kept him from conducting. He was awarded the Lotus Award ("for inspiration to young musicians") from Young Concert Artists. Anthony Tommasini wrote in The New York Times in 2016: "The aspiring singers in the Met's young artist development program, one of many important ventures Mr. Levine started, must understand how lucky they are to have, as a teacher and mentor, a musician who even in his 20s worked at the Met with giants like Jon Vickers and Renata Tebaldi."

Health problems and death
Levine experienced recurrent health issues beginning in 2006, including sciatica and what he called "intermittent tremors". On March 1, 2006, he tripped and fell onstage during a standing ovation after a performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and tore the rotator cuff in his right shoulder, leaving the remaining subscription concerts in Boston to his assistant conductor at the time. Later that month, Levine underwent surgery to repair the injury. He returned to the podium on July 7, 2006.

Levine withdrew from the majority of the Tanglewood 2008 summer season because of surgery required to remove a kidney with a malignant cyst. He returned to the podium in Boston on September 24, 2008, at Symphony Hall.

On September 29, 2009, it was announced that Levine would undergo emergency back surgery for a herniated disk. He missed three weeks of engagements.

In March 2010, the BSO announced that Levine would miss the remainder of the Boston Symphony season because of back pain. The Met also announced, on April 4, 2010, that he was withdrawing from the remainder of his performances for the season. According to the Met, Levine was required to have "corrective surgery for an ongoing lower back problem". He returned to conducting at the Met and the BSO at the beginning of the 2010–11 season, but in February 2011 canceled his Boston engagements for the rest of the season.

In the summer of 2011, Levine underwent further surgery on his back. In September 2011, after he fell down a flight of stairs, fractured his spine, and injured his back while on vacation in Vermont, the Met announced that he would not conduct at the Met at least for the rest of 2011.

After two years of surgery and physical therapy, Levine returned to conducting for the first time on May 19, 2013, in a concert with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Levine conducted from a motorized wheelchair, with a special platform designed to accommodate it, which could rise and descend like an elevator. He returned to the Met on September 24, 2013. The same type of platform was present in the Met orchestra pit for his September 2013 return performance.

For many years, both Levine and the Met denied as unfounded the rumors that Levine had Parkinson's disease. As New York magazine reported: "The conductor states flatly that the condition is not Parkinson's disease, as people had speculated in 'that silly Times piece.'" But in 2016 both he and the Met finally admitted that the rumors were true, and that Levine had in fact had the disease since 1994. The Washington Post noted: "It wasn't just the illnesses, but the constant alternation between concealment and an excess of revelation that kept so much attention focused on them and away from the music."

Levine died in his Palm Springs home on March 9, 2021. Len Horovitz, his personal physician, announced Levine's death on March 17 and said that he had died of natural causes.

Sexual assault allegations
Four men accused Levine of sexually molesting them (starting when they were 16, 17, 17, and 20 years old), from the 1960s to the 1990s.

On December 2, 2017, it was publicly revealed that an October 2016 police report detailed that Levine had allegedly sexually molested a male teenager for years. The alleged sexual abuse began while Levine was guest conductor at the Ravinia Festival, outside Chicago, where Levine was music director for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's summer residencies from 1973 to 1993.

One accuser said that in the summer of 1968, when he was a 17-year-old high school student attending Meadow Brook School of Music in Michigan, Levine (then a 25-year-old faculty member) had sexual contact with a student. When he next saw Levine, the accuser told him that he would not repeat the sexual behavior, but asked if they could continue to make music as they had before; Levine said no. The accuser later played bass in the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for decades and became a professor.

A second accuser said that that same summer, Levine had sexual contact with a 17-year-old student and that Levine then initiated with the teenager a number of sexual encounters that have since haunted him. He said (and another male corroborated, on the condition of anonymity) that the next year, in Cleveland, where Levine was an assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, Levine on several occasions had sexual contact with that student and other students.

A third accuser, a violinist and pianist who grew up in Illinois near the Ravinia Music Festival, a summer program for aspiring musicians of which Levine was music director from 1971 to 1993, said Levine sexually abused him beginning when the accuser was 16 years old (and Levine was in his 40s) in 1986. He had previously detailed his accusation in 2016 in a report to the Lake Forest Police Department in Illinois. On December 8, the department announced that Levine could not be charged criminally in Illinois because the accuser was 16 years old at the time, and while today a 16-year-old is not considered old enough to consent to such conduct in Illinois (he must be 17, or 18 in cases in which the suspect is in a position of trust, authority, or supervision in relation to the victim), at the time that was the statutory age of consent. The department noted: "we are bound to apply the law that was in effect at the time the allegations occurred rather than the law as it currently exists."

On December 4, a fourth man, who later had a long career as a violinist in the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, said he had been abused by Levine beginning in 1968, when he was 20 years old and attending the Meadow Brook School of Music. Levine was a teacher in the summer program.

Reactions
The New York Times said that the Met had known of at least one sexual abuse allegation as early as 1979, but dismissed it as baseless. Furthermore, the Met (including its General Manager Peter Gelb, who was contacted directly by a police detective about the allegations in October 2016) had been aware of both the third accuser's abuse allegations since they were made in the 2016 police report, and of the attendant police investigation. But the Met did not suspend Levine or launch an investigation of its own until over a year later, in December 2017.

In response to the December 2017 news article, the Met announced that it would investigate the sexual abuse allegations dating to the 1980s that were set forth in the 2016 police report. On December 3, after two additional males came forward with allegations of abuse, the Met suspended its ties with Levine, and canceled all upcoming engagements with him. A fourth accuser came forward the following day.

For its part, the Ravinia Festival, in April 2017, six months after the criminal investigation of Levine began, created an honorific title for Levine—"Conductor Laureate"—and signed him to a five-year renewable contract to begin in 2018. On December 4, 2017, the Ravinia Festival severed all ties with Levine, and terminated his five-year contract to lead the Chicago Symphony there.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra said Levine "will never be employed or contracted by the BSO at any time in the future". The Juilliard School, where Levine had studied, replaced him in a February 2018 performance where he was scheduled to lead the Juilliard Orchestra and singers from the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. On December 5, the Cincinnati May Festival canceled Levine's appearance in May. On December 7, in New Plymouth, New Zealand, the cinema chain Event Cinemas abruptly cancelled the screening of a Met production of Levine conducting Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. On December 8, Fred Child, host of the classical music radio show Performance Today, wrote that Levine "is accused of inflicting grievous harm to living members of our musical community. Out of respect for these people and their wounds, I choose not to broadcast performances featuring Mr. Levine on the podium."

Classical music blogger, former Village Voice music critic, and Juilliard School faculty member Greg Sandow said he had been contacted by three men over the years who said that Levine had abused them, and that reports of sexual abuse by Levine were "widely talked about" for 40 years. Sandow said further: "Everybody in the classical music business at least since the 1980s has talked about Levine as a sex abuser. The investigation should have been done decades ago." Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic Justin Davidson mused on the culture website of New York magazine, "James Levine's career has clearly ended" and "I'm not sure the Met can survive Levine's disgrace." Similarly, drama critic Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal wrote an article called "The Levine Cataclysm; How allegations against James Levine of sexual misconduct with teenagers could topple the entire Metropolitan Opera". The Washington Post music critic Anne Midgette noted: "The Met has known about these allegations for at least a year, and are only investigating them now that they are public", and opined on her Facebook page that the Met has "quite probably spent years protecting its star conductor from just this kind of allegation". Music critic Tim Pfaff of the LGBT Bay Area Reporter wrote that The New York Times chief classical music critic Anthony Tommasini had the "weirdest" reaction, "lamenting the ugliness of it all under a...headline, 'Should I Put Away My James Levine Recordings?' His conclusion was that he and his husband...should move those recordings from their living room."

The Met orchestra musicians applauded the courage of the four men who came forward with accusations that Levine had abused them. Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, which represents the Met's orchestra and Levine, said, "We are horrified and sickened by the recently reported allegations of sexual abuse by Mr. Levine."

Five days after news of the accusations by the four men broke, Levine spoke about them for the first time, and called them "unfounded". The accusers stood by their claims, with one saying, "I will take a lie-detector test. Will he?" Six days later, music critic Arthur Kaptainis wrote in the Montreal Gazette that Levine's denial "had little effect".

On March 12, 2018, the Met announced that it had fired Levine. Its investigation found Levine had "engaged in sexually abusive and harassing conduct towards vulnerable artists in the early stages of their careers".

Levine sued the Metropolitan Opera in New York State Supreme Court for breach of contract and defamation on March 15, 2018, three days after the company fired him, seeking more than $5.8 million in damages. The Met denied Levine's allegations. A year later, a New York State Supreme Court judge dismissed most of Levine's claims, but ruled that the Met and its attorney had made defamatory statements.

The Metropolitan Opera and Levine announced a settlement on undisclosed terms in August 2019. In September 2020, the size of the payout was indirectly exposed by annual disclosure statements required for nonprofits; Levine had received $3.5 million in the settlement. It is speculated that he was able to negotiate such a large settlement due to the lack of a morals clause in his contract with the Met.

Recordings and film

Levine made many audio and video recordings. He recorded extensively with many orchestras, and especially often with the Metropolitan Opera. His performance of Aida with Leontyne Price, her last in opera, was preserved on video and may be seen at the Met's own online archive of performances. Of particular note are his performances of Wagner's complete Der Ring des Nibelungen. A studio recording made for Deutsche Grammophon from 1987 to 1989 is on compact disc, and a 1989 live performance of the Ring is available on DVD. He also appears on several dozen albums as a pianist, collaborating with such singers as Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle, Christa Ludwig, and Dawn Upshaw, as well as performing the chamber music of Franz Schubert and Francis Poulenc, among others.

Levine was featured in the animated Disney film Fantasia 2000. He conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the soundtrack recordings of all the music in the film (with the exception of one segment from the original 1940 Fantasia). Levine is also seen in the film talking briefly with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, just as his predecessor Leopold Stokowski did in the original film.

Discography
 Marilyn Horne: Divas in Song (1994), RCA Victor Red Seal CD, 09026-62547-2

Videography
 Mozart: Idomeneo (1982), Deutsche Grammophon DVD, 00440-073-4234
 The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala (1983), Deutsche Grammophon DVD, 00440-073-4538
 The Metropolitan Opera Gala 1991, Deutsche Grammophon DVD, 00440-073-4582
 James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala (1996), Deutsche Grammophon DVD, B0004602-09

Honors
Among the awards listed in his Met biography are:
 1980 – Manhattan Cultural Award
 1982 – first of eight Grammy Awards
 1984 – Named "Musician of the Year" by Musical America
 1986 – Smetana Medal (presented by the former Czechoslovakia)
 1997 – National Medal of Arts
 1999 – Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize from the Committee for Cultural Advancement of Baden-Baden, Germany
 2003 – Kennedy Center Honors
 2005 – Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
 2006 – Opera News Award
 2009 – Award in the Vocal Arts from Bard College
 2009 – Ditson Conductors Award from Columbia University
 2010 – National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honoree
 2010 – George Peabody Award from Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University
 2010 – elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

In addition, his biography says Levine has received honorary doctorates from the University of Cincinnati, the New England Conservatory of Music, Northwestern University, the State University of New York, and the Juilliard School. On May 3, 2018, SUNY revoked Levine's honorary doctorate in response to the sexual abuse allegations against him.

References

External links

1943 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American conductors (music)
20th-century American pianists
20th-century American male musicians
20th-century classical pianists
21st-century American conductors (music)
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American pianists
21st-century classical pianists
American classical pianists
American male conductors (music)
American male pianists
Aspen Music Festival and School alumni
Conductors of the Metropolitan Opera
Deutsche Grammophon artists
Grammy Award winners
Jewish American classical musicians
Jewish classical pianists
Juilliard School alumni
Kennedy Center honorees
Male classical pianists
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21st-century American Jews
Arthur Reed Ropes (23 December 1859 – 11 September 1933), better known under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, was a prolific writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty British musical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  He was the most important lyricist of the British stage during a career that spanned five decades.  At a time when few shows had long runs, nineteen of his West End shows ran for over 400 performances.

Starting out in the late 1880s, Ross wrote the lyrics for the earliest British musical theatre hits, including In Town (1892), The Shop Girl (1894) and The Circus Girl (1896).  Ross next wrote the lyrics for a string of hit musicals, beginning with A Greek Slave (1898), San Toy (1899), The Messenger Boy (1900) and The Toreador (1901) and continuing without a break through World War I.  He also wrote the English lyrics for a series of hit adaptations of European operettas beginning with The Merry Widow in 1907.

During World War I, Ross was one of the founders of the Performing Rights Society.  He continued writing until 1930, producing several more successes after the war.  He also wrote the popular novel The Hole of the Pit and a number of short stories.

Life and career
Ross was born in Lewisham, London.  He was the youngest son and fourth child of Ellen Harriet Ropes née Hall, of Scarborough, and William Hooper Ropes, a Russia merchant.  Ross's parents lived in Normandy, France, but sent him to school in London at Priory House School in Clapton, Mill Hill School, and the City of London School.  He later attended King's College, Cambridge, where, in 1881, he won the Chancellor's Medal for English verse for his poem "Temple Bar", and also won the Members' Prize for the English essay.  In 1883 he graduated with a first-class degree, winning the Lightfoot scholarship for history and a Whewell scholarship for international law.  He was elected a fellow of the College.

He was a Cambridge University graduate and don, teaching history and poetry from 1884 to 1890 and writing serious and comic verse of his own, the first volume of which was published in 1884. In 1889, he published "A Sketch of the History of Europe". He was also a translator of French and German literature under his own name. He created the fictitious name "Adrian Ross" due to a concern that writing musicals would compromise his academic career.

Early career

During a brief illness in 1883 after catching cold at the University Boat Race, Ross used the lonely time in bed to write the libretto of an entertainment entitled A Double Event. This was produced at St. George's Hall, London in 1884 with music by Arthur Law, and Ross used the name "Arthur Reed". His next work for the stage, also as Arthur Reed, was the book and lyrics for a musical burlesque, Faddimir (1889 at the Opera Comique), with music by fellow Cambridge graduate, F. Osmond Carr.

The piece earned enough praise so that the impresario George Edwardes commissioned the two to write another burlesque, together with the comic actor John Lloyd Shine, called Joan of Arc.  Songs from the piece included "I Went to Find Emin", "Round the Town", and "Jack the Dandy-O".  Joan of Arc opened in 1891 at the Opera Comique starring Arthur Roberts and Marion Hood; he wrote under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, which he used for the rest of his career. The piece was a hit, lasting for almost eight hundred performances, and Ross resigned from Cambridge.  To supplement his income from theatre writing, Ross became a contributor to such journals as Punch, Sketch, Sphere and The World, and he joined the staff of Ariel in 1891–1892.  He wrote in The Tatler under the pseudonym Bran Pie and in 1893 published an edition of Lady Mary Wortley Montague's Letters. He also published numerous French texts for the Pitt Press series.

Ross and Carr's next work, in collaboration with James T. Tanner, was In Town (1892), a smart, contemporary tale of backstage and society goings-on.  This left behind the earlier Gaiety burlesques and helped set the new fashion for the series of modern-dress Gaiety Theatre shows that quickly spread to other theatres and dominated British musical theatre.  For his next piece, Morocco Bound (1893, with the song "Marguerite from Monte Carlo"), Ross concentrated on writing lyrics, leaving the "book" mostly to Arthur Branscombe.  This proved to be his most successful model through most of his career. The position of "lyricist" was relatively new, as previously the writers of libretti would invariably write the lyrics themselves.  As the new Edwardes-produced "musical comedies" took the place of burlesque, comic opera and operetta on the stage, Ross and Harry Greenbank established the usefulness of a separate lyricist.

Gaiety and Daly Theatre musicals
Ross contributed lyrics to almost all of the Gaiety Theatre's shows, beginning with The Shop Girl (1894, with his song "Brown of Colorado") and Go-Bang in 1895.  He wrote over two thousand lyrics and produced lyrics for over sixty musicals thereafter, including most of the hit musicals through World War I.  In 1896, he contributed to the Gaiety Theatre hit, The Circus Girl.  He also wrote lyrics for the one-act comic opera, Weather or No (1896), which played as a companion piece to The Mikado at the Savoy Theatre, as well as several other Savoy operas, such as Mirette (1894), His Majesty, or The Court of Vignolia (1897), The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein (1897) and The Lucky Star (1899).

Ross also wrote lyrics for the shows at Daly's Theatre.  His lyrics to additional numbers for An Artist's Model (1895) and The Geisha (1896) were successful enough so that Edwardes asked him for major contributions to the rest, beginning with A Greek Slave (1898), especially after the death of the theatre's early chief lyricist, Harry Greenbank.  These included a series of enormous successes, including San Toy (1899), The Messenger Boy (1900), Kitty Grey (1901), The Toreador (1901), A Country Girl (1902), The Girl from Kays (1903), The Orchid (1903), The Cingalee (1904), The Spring Chicken (1905) and The Girls of Gottenberg (1907).  In 1901, Ross married Ethel Wood, an actress, and the couple produced a son and two daughters. The family resided in Church Street, Kensington. Also in 1901, he collaborated with his sister Mary Emily Ropes on the children's story, On Peter's Island.

When Edwardes found success, beginning in 1907, in mounting English-language versions of the new generation of continental European operettas to the London stage, Ross wrote the English lyrics for the adaptations, often with libretti by Basil Hood.  His words to the songs in The Merry Widow (1907) became the standard English version of that piece, performed throughout the world for many decades.  Other Continental musicals that Ross anglicised included A Waltz Dream (1908), The Dollar Princess (1909), The Girl in the Train (1910), The Count of Luxembourg (1911), The Girl on the Film (1913) and The Marriage Market (1913), most of which had enduring success throughout the English-speaking world. Other successes from this period were the musicals King of Cadonia (1908), Havana (1908), Our Miss Gibbs (1909), The Quaker Girl (1911), and Betty in 1915.  In addition, many of Ross's most successful pieces had additional successes on tour in Britain, in America and elsewhere.  His biggest hits on Broadway included The Girl from Kays (1903), The Merry Widow (1907 and many revivals), Havana (1909), Madame Sherry (1911) and The Quaker Girl (1911).

Later career

In 1914, Ross was one of the founders of the Performing Rights Society. Ross continued, after Edwardes's death, to write lyrics for numerous shows at the Gaiety, Daly's, the Adelphi Theatre, and other London theatres.  During World War I, he continued to produce hits, writing the lyrics for the musical adaptation of a French comedy, Theodore & Co (1916), the operetta Arlette (1917), the musical The Boy (1917), André Messager's adaptation of Booth Tarkington's Monsieur Beaucaire (1919, "Philomel") and contributed to A Southern Maid (1920).  He also worked on the revues Three Cheers (1917) with Herman Darewski, Airs and Graces with Lionel Monckton, and, years later, Sky High for the Palladium Theatre, but these were only diversions from his chief focus of writing lyrics for musicals and operetta adaptations. In 1922, he wrote both the book and the lyrics for the popular English version of Das Dreimäderlhaus, the international hit based on Franz Schubert's music and life, produced in Britain as Lilac Time.  In 1927, Ross and Dudley Glass, an Australian composer, collaborated on a musical based on The Beloved Vagabond by W. J. Locke.  His last works were produced in 1930: the English adaptation of the operetta Friederike for the Palace Theatre, and a musical based on The Toymaker of Nuremberg by Austin Strong, which was produced as a Kingsway Theatre Christmas entertainment.

Ross collaborated extensively with the foremost British-based composers of musical theatre active during his productive period, including Carr, Ivan Caryll, Monckton, Leslie Stuart and Sidney Jones, and later Paul Rubens, Harold Fraser-Simson, Howard Talbot and Messager.  Sixteen of his musicals ran for more than 400 performances. Ross tailored each song to fit the style required by the producer – songs for the Gaiety were different from those for Daly's. Many of his most popular shows, songs (both for the theatre and beyond it) and adaptations are still performed today.

Fiction and last years
Ross also wrote the popular horror novel The Hole of the Pit and a number of short stories. Set in 1645 during the English Civil War, the novel tells of a loathsome entity that inhabits a flooded pit amid the marshes surrounding a castle. The book is notable for its depth of characterisation – especially of the compassionate young narrator, a Puritan scholar who has refused to join Oliver Cromwell's army because of his objections to religious violence and who sees the good in everyone – and for its subtle depiction of the creature in the hole, which is never completely seen even as it overwhelms the castle. The novel was published in 1914 by Edward Arnold and never reprinted until Ramsey Campbell collected it in his 1992 anthology Uncanny Banquet. Brian Stableford called it "a minor classic of the genre". Ross also wrote Short History of Europe, edited Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu's Letters (Selection and Life), and was a contributor to Punch magazine.

Ross died of heart failure at his home in Kensington, London on 11 September 1933 at the age of 73.

List of stage works
Ross contributed lyrics to the following musicals and comic operas, often in collaboration with other lyricists:

Faddimir, or The Triumph of Orthodoxy (1889)
Joan of Arc (1891) (400+ performances in total)
Don Juan (1892, starring Roberts)
The Young Recruit (1892)
In Town (1892) (292 performances)
Morocco Bound (1893) (295 performances)
Go-Bang (1894) (129 performances)
The Shop Girl (1894) (546 performances)
Mirette revised English version (1894) (total of 102 performances in both versions)
Bobbo (1895)
Biarritz (1896) (71 performances)
My Girl (1896) (183 performances)
Weather or No (1896) (209 performances)
The Circus Girl (1896) (497 performances)
His Majesty, or The Court of Vignolia (1897) (61 performances)
The Ballet Girl (1897)
The Grand Duchess (1897) (104 performances)

The Transit of Venus (1898)
Billy (1898)
A Greek Slave (1898) (349 performances)
Milord Sir Smith (1898) (82 performances)
The Lucky Star (1899) (143 performances)
San Toy (1899) (768 performances)
The Messenger Boy (1900) (429 performances)
The Toreador (1901) (675 performances)
Kitty Grey (1901) (220 performances)
A Country Girl (1902) (729 performances)
The Girl from Kays (1903) (432 performances; 236 performances on Broadway)
The Orchid (1903) (559 performances)
The Cingalee (1904) (365 performances)
The Spring Chicken (1905) (401 performances)
The Little Cherub (1906) (114 performances)
Naughty Nero (1906)

The New Aladdin (1906) (203 performances)
See-See (1906) (152 performances).
Les Merveilleuses (1906) (196 performances)
The Girls of Gottenberg (1907) (303 performances)
The Merry Widow (1907) (778 performances; 416 performances on Broadway, and many revivals)
A Waltz Dream (1908) (146 performances)
Havana (1908) (221 performances; 231 performances on Broadway)
King of Cadonia (1908) (333 performances)
The Dollar Princess (1909) (428 performances)
The Antelope (1909)
Our Miss Gibbs (1909) (636 performances)
The Dashing Little Duke (1909) (101 performances)
The Arcadians (1910, 809 performances; Broadway production: 201 performances)
Captain Kidd (1910)
The Girl in the Train (1910) (340 performances)
The Quaker Girl (1911) (536 performances; 248 performances on Broadway)
Madame Sherry (1911: 231 performances on Broadway)
Castles in the Air (Frau Luna) (1911)
The Count of Luxembourg (1911) (240 performances)
Gipsy Love (1912) (299 performances)
The Wedding Morning (1912)
Tantalising Tommy (1912)
The Dancing Mistress (1912) (241 performances)
The Girl on the Film (Filmzauber) (1913) (232 performances)
The Marriage Market (Lednyedsdr) (1913)
The Girl from Utah (1913) (195 performances)
The Belle of Bond Street revised version of The Girl from Kays (1914)
Betty (1915) (391 performances)
The Light Blues (1915)
The Happy Day (1916) (241 performances)
Theodore & Co (1916) (503 performances)
Oh! Caesar (1916) (toured only)
The Happy Family (1916)
Arlette (1917)
The Boy (1917) (801 performances)
Three Cheers (1917) (revue)
Monsieur Beaucaire (1919) (400 performances)
The Kiss Call (1919)
Maggie (1919)
The Eclipse (1919)
Medorah (1920)
A Southern Maid (1920) (306 performances)
The Love Flower (1920)
The Naughty Princess (1920) (280 performances – at the Adelphi Theatre)
Faust on Toast (1921)
Love's Awakening (1921)
Lilac Time (1922) (626 performances)
The Cousin from Nowhere (1922; Der Vetter aus Dingsda, 1921, composed by Eduard Künneke) (105 performances)
Head Over Heels (1923)
The Beloved Vagabond (1927) (107 performances)
Frederica (Friederike) (1930) (music by Franz Lehár)
The Toymaker of Nuremberg (1930) (32 performances)

Notes

References
 
Nicoll, A. English drama, 1900–1930 (1973)
Parker, J. (ed.) Who's who in the theatre (1912)
Reeves, Ken: "The Life and Work of Adrian Ross" in The Gaiety Annual (2002) pp. 3–14
The Times obituary, 12 September 1933

External links
Listing of English musicals with links

Links to poems by Ross
Sheet music covers for Ross songs
 

English lyricists
English musical theatre lyricists
People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan
1859 births
1933 deaths
People from Lewisham
English male dramatists and playwrights
English horror writers Draped Up & Chipped Out, Vol. 3 is a compilation album by American rapper Messy Marv, released on December 9, 2008. It peaked at #50 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, #27 on the Heatseekers Albums chart, and #16 on the Heatseekers Albums chart. It is the third, and most successful, album of his Draped Up & Chipped Out series, and one of the most successful albums of his career. It includes performances by Krizz Kaliko, Tech N9ne, Killer Mike, Capone-N-Noreaga, Sean T, Mistah F.A.B., Jay Rock and Yukmouth, and a guest appearance from Keak da Sneak, among others.

Track listing

References

2008 albums
Messy Marv albums
SMC Recordings albums
Sequel albums